‘Strong grip improves quality of life’

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Researchers at Asan Medical Center (AMC) have discovered a close correlation between grasping power and a person’s quality of life, the hospital said Wednesday.

The team, led by Professor Park Hye-soon of the department of family medicine at the hospital, analyzed 4,620 Korean adults aged 20 years or older (2,070 male, 2,550 female) to confirm the correlation between handgrip strength and their quality of life.

The handgrip strength is a method that can measure the power of a person’s muscles. Although mainly used for health evaluation for the elderly, the team’s study confirmed the relationship between grip strength and quality of life at all ages.

Among those whose handgrip strength was in the lower quartile of the whole population, the athletic ability problems, which assesses the degree of movement, increased by 1.93 times in men, while physical discomfort also increased by 1.53 times.

Regarding women, both athletic ability problems and physical discomfort increased by 2.12 and 1.48 times, respectively, while daily activity problem such as studying and housework increased by 2.04 times.

“Both men and women had a decrease in grip strength as their muscle strength became weaker with age,” Professor Park said. “In particular, a decrease in body mass index (BMI) in males indicates a decrease in their hand grip strength.”

To maintain a better quality of life, physical training is needed to keep the proper body weight and improve muscle strength, Park added.